The Homeless Chickens of Fair Oaks

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Horrid Weather, Wonderful Friends

We are into the fifth day of our California road trip...and the weather is getting steadily worse! It is actually colder here than in LaConner. (42 when we were out earlier!)

We drove down through Washington and Oregon in sun/rain for two days and hit snow in the mountains in Oregon/California, but it did not stick to the ground, thankfully! We got in front of the storm in California, and had sun til mid morning on Friday, when the downpours started.

Last night we had wind gusts here around 50 mph...!

The good part has been seeing family and friends along the way. We stopped to see Jason and Gabriel in Edmonds and Luke at work on the way through Seattle. We got to my cousin Pam's home by dinner on Thursday. We had a wonderful meal (fresh picked aparagus....mmmm) and even better conversation with Pam, her husband Denis, my Uncle Fred, and for awhile, Pam and Denis's daughter Emily on speaker phone. We spent the night with them in Stockton, and then left for Fair Oaks (outside Sacramento) where Perry and Liz now live.

Their new house is beautiful, and in a great older neighborhood. Perry is working on a garden and has lots of seeds started...

Yesterday we visited Amador County's Shenandoah Valley for wine tasting and scenic drives in the rain. There are dozens of wineries in this compact region. We found a few small excellent wineries tucked into the green rolling hills...and drove past many flooding creeks and streams. We visited several old gold mining towns before heading back home. (www.tanisvineyards.com and www.sobonwine.com)


Today Bill and I are on our own, watching the Huskies and maybe walking into the old part of Fair Oaks if it stops pouring. We will spend one last night with Perry and Liz, and head south with the storm Monday morning....

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Photos

The Homeless Chickens of Fair Oaks
Apparently, long ago, a woman had chickens and abandoned them when she left...they are now all over the town center!

Rest stop
I drove from Seattle to CA....Bill's retina is bleeding again and obscuring some of his vision...it's better now, but he will have it operated on in April...

And more snow....
They are expecting a few feet tonight...glad we made it through when we did!

Pam and Denis's Yard
They have several citrus trees and gave us Meyer lemons to take with us! There is a large greenbelt behind the fence that goes for miles...

Liz in Jackson, an old mining town
There was a street fair, but most booths were packing p, having given up in the face of cold, rain, and wind. The town has the first American Serbian Church and a large cemetery.

Living Room
Rug was ours, from Lake City house. It works well here...!

A rooster crowing
Many more roosters than chickens...why?

Rosemary in bloom
The flowers think it's spring...